Vic: Firefighters assessing bushfires from air

AAP General News (Australia)
02-02-2009
Vic: Firefighters assessing bushfires from air

MELBOURNE, Feb 2 AAP - Country Fire Authority (CFA) aircraft are assessing fires burning
in Gippsland after a weekend of fierce blazes that ripped through homes and bushland.

A CFA spokesman said aircraft were sent at first light on Monday over the Delburn complex
fire to review the blazes, which are still burning out of control but are close to being
contained.

Some fire activity in Mirboo North overnight will be viewed from the air, the spokesman
said, but firefighters were not expecting extreme activity due to cooler conditions.

"They've been concentrating on blacking out and basically consolidating the work that's
been done over the past few days," the spokesman told AAP.

Fires east of the Delburn complex are still burning near the township of Licola and
five fires are burning out of control in the northeast - two near the goldfields town
of Yackandandah, near Wodonga, one at nearby Kergunyah, one southeast of the Hume Weir
town of Tallangatta and another at Freeburgh, near Bright.

Although there is no total fire ban in Victoria on Monday, fire conditions remain extreme,
particularly north of the Great Dividing Range, where most centres are expecting top temperatures
in the high 30s to low 40s.

AAP ees/gfr/ldj

KEYWORD: BUSHFIRES VIC UPDATE

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